A study conducted by researchers from Finland’s Aalto University, the University of Cambridge in the UK and Switzerland’s ETH Zürich found that people’s speed when typing on mobile devices is now almost as fast as typing on keyboards.
According to a report by CNN, the study participated by 37,000 volunteers in 160 countries looked at speed and accuracy data from a typing test and found that some 74 percent of users in the survey used both thumbs to achieve high typing speeds on mobile devices.
Study co-author Anna Feit, a researcher at ETH Zürich, said in a statement: “We were amazed to see that users typing with two thumbs achieved 38 words per minute on average, which is only about 25 percent slower than the typing speeds we observed in a similar large-scale study of physical keyboards.”
“We were amazed to see that users typing with two thumbs achieved 38 words per minute on average, which is only about 25 percent slower than the typing speeds we observed in a similar large-scale study of physical keyboards,” she added.
The study also shows that auto-correction was found to increase typing speeds on mobile devices but word prediction didn’t, and that those aged 10-19 type an average of 10 words per minute faster than those in their 40s.
Antti Oulasvirta, an academic at Aalto University said: “We are seeing a young generation that has always used touchscreen devices, and the difference to older generations that may have used devices longer, but different types, is staggering.”
(Photo source: ctvnews.ca/ gopeople.com.au)
